FAHE 2023 Conference Call for Proposals

44th Annual Meeting of the Friends Association for Higher Education

Quakers, Colonization, and Decolonization
June 12-15, 2023

Hosted, in-person and over Zoom, by Haverford College, Haverford PA

Call for Proposals

Proposal submission deadline: March 31

Proposal submission form

Questions? Email: FAHE_Annual_Conference@quakerfahe.com

On June 12-15, 2023, FAHE will hold its annual conference  on the campus of Haverford College. For those who are unable to attend in person, some sessions will be available online.

The FAHE Program Committee invites proposals from Indigenous people, Friends, and academic  faculty, staff and administrators for papers, panels, or workshops related to the conference theme  or other related topics reflecting Quaker concerns in higher education.

As a tool for seeking truth as part of corporate discernment and decision-making, Quakers offer queries to provide focus, direction, and inspiration. Queries to consider in envisioning and crafting proposals include:

  • What is colonization? What has quakerism’s relationship to empire, colonization, and colonized peoples & lands been over the past 4 centuries?  Can colonization/colonialism be a good thing? How do the roots of our colonial histories survive in our communities & continue to feed our institutions, our beliefs, and our practices as Friends, Friends’ institutions, and institutions of higher education?
  • How can current quakerisms survive the anti-colonial critique of both anglo-american empire and christian empire (eg, Gerbner)?
  • What are colonization’s “master’s tools [that] will never dismantle the master’s house”? (Audre Lorde 1979)  How does quakerism continue to serve colonization & empire? What role does christianity play as an imperial tool? How does our english language & culture maintain settler-imperial thought & attitudes?
  • What is decolonization? How has this concept been helpful to our work? How has it been misappropriated and misused?  What actions are we taking to decolonize? What gets in the way?
  • Is decolonization always good? Is empire always bad?  What does decolonized quakerism offer indigenous people? — settler people?
  • What is indigenization? What attraction does quakerism have for indigenous people? Is there agreement among indigenous Friends on the values of empire, decolonization & indigenization? What responsibility does quakerism have for returning Indigenous life to the way it was before colonization, before conversion? Can Friends apply quaker ‘universalism’ to affirm the inherent goodness in Native religion and promote its return as equally or more truthful and enlightened as christianity?
  • How does the quaker value of universalism inform the cultural limitations of traditional colonial-settler quakerism’s single story of christianity? How do Friends integrate & center indigenous stories into friendly practice?
  • What messages (knowledge, experience, challenges) can indigenous people who have suffered the impacts of colonial & imperial oppression bring to this conference? What are the responsibilities of quakers who have benefited from or even perpetuated these oppressions?
  • What research is being done concerning land theft that benefits our colleges, our meetings, and our institutions? What efforts are being made towards repair/reparations? What important research is not being done, and why?
  • What curricular and co-curricular programs are we developing that effectively explore the growing edges of this field of decolonization & indigenization?
  • How can Quaker academics and Quaker institutions support the movement for healing the trauma caused by Quaker Indigenous boarding schools and colonial-settler assimilation & cultural genocide?
  • How can this work be done justly, with integrity, and with respect for and participation of impacted peoples?
  • How do indigenous truth and justice prosper among us? What do indigenous love and truth require of us?

Papers, panels, and workshops can explore these issues as well as other areas of participants’ research.

The FAHE Program Committee requests your submissions by March 31, 2023.  If you have any questions, please email the program committee at:

FAHE_Annual_Conference@quakerfahe.com.

Proposal submission form:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScG6ld6-V7Flz9aIPcKpYqnpK9-m-k50EcRxVxftpOjAMpnoA/viewform

The Friends Association for Higher Education was conceived in 1979 by a group of educators seeking to bring together faculty, staff and administrators at historically Quaker colleges and universities, as well as Friends teaching at other institutions. Since its founding, FAHE has met annually at Friends institutions of higher education around the US and beyond, engaging educators and scholars in ongoing dialogue around Quaker concerns in higher education. From the very beginning, Friends have embraced a strong commitment to education, and Friends schools and colleges have attracted and welcomed both Quaker and non-Quaker educators alike who resonate with the historic Friends commitment to educating the whole person, guided by the Quaker testimonies of simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and (especially in recent decades) sustainability.

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FAHE 2023 Conference Registration

The 2023 FAHE Conference is on “Quakers, Colonization, and Decolonization,” and will be held June 12-15, 2023, at Haverford College, in Haverford, Pennsylvania, USA and over Zoom.

The call for proposals is still open until March 31. Proposals can be related to the conference theme, or can address other topics reflecting Quaker concerns in higher education. Here is more information on how to submit a conference proposal.

If you are ready to register for the conference, here is the full registration information!

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Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival Event 4

The American Friends Service Committee & The BlackQuaker Project Present

THE 2023 BLACK QUAKER LIVES MATTER FILM FESTIVAL & FORUM

Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars 

Saturday, 18 March, 1:00 PM EDT over Zoom

The 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum will soon return with its fourth event, honoring the life and legacy of Benjamin Banneker. On Saturday, 18 March, we will screen Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars (1981), a television film starring the renowned artist-activist Ossie Davis as the legendary astronomer, surveyor, mathematician, and almanac publisher. Born a free man of Senegalese descent, Banneker attended Quaker Meeting for much of his life, helped survey the boundaries of Washington, DC, and even petitioned Thomas Jefferson to recognize Black liberation efforts. After the film, we will have the unique opportunity to learn more about Benjamin Banneker’s life and legacy from his Black and White descendents: retired educator Gwen Marable, Northwestern University scholar-linguist Dr. Rachel Jamison Webster, and educator Pamela Williams. All three will be participating in our post-screening dialogue, followed by an audience Q & A.

Register here for our Saturday, 18 March, screening and forum. Programming will take place over Zoom webinar and begins precisely at 1:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time. We invite our registrants to join our webinar early, at 12:40 PM EDT, for a mini-concert of selected African American freedom music. Please write to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum.

Peace and Blessings,

Dr. Harold D. Weaver

Film Festival-Forum Director, Curator, and Host

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QLHE: Listening Into Relationship (Rescheduled)

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher Education series presents:

Listening into Relationship:
Practices that Connect in the Secular Classroom
(Rescheduled from January)

In this workshop, the facilitator models how to use contemplative listening practices that help educators bring alive course content and help students get to know themselves and their peers.

Tuesday, March 28, 2023
7:30-9 pm, Eastern U.S. time
To register: tinyurl.com/FAHE-03-28-23

(If you previously registered for this event, it would help us if you would re-register so that we know that the new date works for you.)

Presenter:
Alice Elliott-Sowaal (she/her; they/them)

Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
San Francisco State University

Moderator:
David R. Ross  (he/him)
Research Professor
Department of Economics
Bryn Mawr College

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Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival Event 3

The 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum
Saturday, 4 March, 1:00 PM EST: Sisters In Freedom
Black & White Women in the Abolition Struggle: Sarah Mapps Douglass

Join us on Saturday, 4 March, as we celebrate Women’s History Month with a unique look at early collaboration between Black and White women fighting for African American emancipation. The third event of the Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum honors Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882) an abolitionist, educator, artist, and author. She is a member of the Morrey-Bustill Quaker family, which produced two centuries of African American Friends, and is also an ancestor of Paul Robeson. For our program, we will screen Sisters in Freedom, which tells the stories of trailblazing Black and White women, our honoree among them, who organized for both gender equality and the abolition of slavery. After our screening, we will host a discussion between eminent Haverford historian Dr. Emma Lapsansky-Werner and Joyce Mosley, author and historian of the Morrey-Bustill family (of which she is a member). Following their dialogue, our guest experts will participate in a Q & A with our audience.

How To Register

Register here for our Saturday, 4 March, program which will take place over a Zoom webinar. You will be sent a confirmation email upon registration and will later receive a link to join our webinar 24 hours in advance of the event. 
Programming will begin precisely at 1:00 PM Eastern Standard Time though we invite you to join us early, at 12:40 PM EST, when we open the webinar for a 20-minute prologue of Paul Robeson music. All our remaining events are free and open to the public with prior registration. Please write to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with your questions or comments.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver 
Festival-Forum Director, Curator, and Host

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Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival Event 2

A Unique Black History Month Event This Saturday!

Saturday, 18 February , 1 PM ET over Zoom Webinar

The Prep School Negro (2012): African Americans in Quaker Schools

Honoree: Quaker Educator Joan Countryman

This Saturday, the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum continues with our second event, examining the challenges of African Americans in Quaker schools and honoring lifelong Quaker-educator Joan Countryman. On Saturday, 18 February, we will screen the 2012 documentary, The Prep School Negro, directed by trailblazing filmmaker André Robert Lee, and discuss the trials and contributions of African American students, teachers, and administrators in Quaker education. This program begins precisely at 1:00 PM Eastern Time over Zoom Webinar. You can register here for this event and receive a Zoom invitation to join the webinar 24 hours in advance. 

We are honored to be joined by the following guest experts:

André Robert Lee is an award-winning filmmaker, keynote speaker, consultant, writer, and educator. André has served as a professor of writing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and teaches filmmaking at the Germantown Friends School, where he worked to develop a film program. His most recent film, Virtually Free (2021), tells the story of incarcerated youth in Richmond, Virginia, and is still on the festival route.

Joan Cannaday Countryman grew up in the Germantown section of Philadelphia and became the first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School in 1958. Her career in education included serving as a teacher and administrator in Friends schools, as the Head of Lincoln School in Providence, RI, as the Interim Head of The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa, and as the Interim Head of the Atlanta Girls’ School. She has been a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting since 1958. We are thrilled to have Joan Countryman joining us as both honoree and guest expert.

Emma Bracker teaches history at Moses Brown School in Providence, RI, and has extensive experience in Quaker education as student and teacher. A graduate of Haverford College (BA – History) and the University of Pennsylvania (M.S.Ed.), she spent seven years teaching, coaching, and working in residential life at Westtown School in West Chester, PA.

We will open Satuday’s Zoom Webinar at 12:40 PM Eastern Time. Those who join early will be treated to a pre-screening mini-concert of selected music before our program begins at 1:00 PM ET. You can register here for EACH of our remaining screenings. Write to us at theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver 
Festival-Forum Director, Curator, and Host
theblackquakerproject@gmail.com

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Quaker History Grants

The Friends Historical Association is pleased to offer funding to support contributions to the field of Quaker history. There are three grant opportunities: project support, publication subventions, and research funds. All opportunities run on the same cycle, and applications are due April 15, 2023. Details about each opportunity and application instruction are provided at https://www.quakerhistory.org/grants.

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QLHE: Service-Learning Programs

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher Education series presents:

Service-Learning Programs and Opportunities for Ethical Engagement

Tuesday, February 28, 2023
7:30-9 pm, Eastern U.S. time

Practices to advance community-campus engagement that support more just, inclusive, sustainable communities and positive partnerships across disciplines and geographies. 

Made possible by the members of  FAHE.  Your voluntary contribution in support of FAHE and this lecture series is greatly appreciated.

To register: tinyurl.com/FAHE-02-28-23

Presenters:

Christen Higgins Clougherty (she/her)
Founder and Director, The Nobis Project

Eric Hartman (he/him)
Executive Director, Center for Peace and Global Citizenship, Haverford College

Moderator:

Walter Sullivan (he/him)
Director, Quaker Affairs, Haverford College

Poster for this event:

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2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum

The American Friends Service Committee
& The BlackQuaker Project
Present:

The 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum
Screening & Discussion Every Other Saturday
4 February 2023 to 8 April 2023, 1 PM Eastern Time  

Dear F/friends,          

The BlackQuaker Project (BQP) is proud to announce the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum, a groundbreaking exploration of Black Friends who made a difference throughout both USA and world history. This year’s festival-forum features themes of importance to African American Quakers and others concerned with truth and justice: abolition, retrospective justice/reparations, freedom, education, Black-White relations, non-violence, and anti-violence in response to systemic violence. Our honorees range from 20th century trailblazing Friends of African Descent back to early Quakers of Color who are too often forgotten. Some of their stories will challenge Friends to consider what defines a Quaker, as we examine the lives of extraordinary people of color who were Friends in all but name, and ask ourselves what may have prevented or deterred them from joining the Religious Society of Friends. Our festival-forum begins on 4 February, in recognition of Black History Month, continues through Women’s History Month in March, and ends on 8 April with a special celebration of the momentous 125th birthday of prolific artist and human rights activist Paul Robeson, a descendant of over 200 years of Quakers. 

Screenings will be held over Zoom every other Saturday at 1:00 PM Eastern Time and will feature post-screening dialogues between invited guest experts, hosted by festival-forum director and curator Dr. Harold D. Weaver. We are honored to have eminent scholar-activists, writers, and historians, some of whom are descendants of our honorees, participating in this year’s dialogues, which will conclude with Q & A sessions open to our audience.

How to Register 

Free registration is open for EACH screening on our website here! Please note that you must register for EACH screening separately. Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email and, 24 hours before the screening, you will receive a Zoom link for the event you chose to attend. You can view our full program schedule below. 

Saturday, 4 February 2023: Interview with Bill Sutherland (1999) –Liberation and Non-Violence in Africa & USA 

  • Honoring Bill Sutherland (1918-2010): nonviolence advocate, veteran AFSC employee, imprisoned conscientious objector, friend and active supporter of African liberation and freedom fighters. 
  • Featuring a discussion between Joyce Ajlouny (AFSC General Secretary), Keith Harvey (AFSC  NE Regional Director), and Dr. Matthew Meyer, co-author with Bill Sutherland of Guns and Gandhi in Africa: Pan-African Insights on Nonviolence, Armed Struggle and Liberation (2001)

Saturday, 18 February 2023: The Prep School Negro (2012) –Joan Countryman: African Americans in Quaker Schools.

  • Honoring Joan Countryman (b. 1945): first African American graduate of Germantown Friends School, longtime teacher and administrator in Friends’ schools, former head of Lincoln School and co-founder of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership School for Girls in South Africa.
  • Featuring a discussion between the honoree, the film’s director-producer André Robert Lee, and Westtown School teacher-graduate Mauricio Torres (video recorded).

Saturday, 4 March 2023: Sisters in Freedom (2018) –Sarah Mapps Douglass: Women in the Abolition Struggle Against Slavery. 

  • Honoring Sarah Mapps Douglass (1806-1882): prolific educator, author, committed abolitionist, and ancestor of Paul Robeson.
  • Featuring a discussion between eminent historian Dr. Emma Lapsansky-Werner and author Joyce Mosley, a Bustill-Mapps descendant.

Saturday, 18 March 2023: Benjamin Banneker: The Man Who Loved The Stars (1981) – Early African American Scholar-Activist. 

  • Honoring Benjamin Banneker (1731-1806): almanac publisher, astronomer, petitioner to Thomas Jefferson for African American abolition, and faithful Attender of Quaker Meeting.
  • Featuring a discussion with Banneker descendant-researchers of African and European descent: Gwen Marable, Dr. Rachel Webster, and Pamela Williams.

Saturday, 8 April 2023: Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1978) and The Proud Valley (1940) – Celebrating Paul Robeson’s 125th Birthday

  • Honoring Quaker descendant Paul Robeson, the “beleaguered leader” and “artist as revolutionary,” groundbreaking recording, film, theatrical, and music star.
  • Featuring a discussion between Robeson scholars Dr. Gerald Horne, Dr. Charles Musser, and Dr. Harold D. Weaver.

To learn more about the 2023 Black Quaker Lives Matter Film Festival & Forum, please visit our official page for the festival-forum here on our BQP website.

Write to us at the theblackquakerproject@gmail.com with any questions or comments about the festival-forum. Please feel free to forward this e-newsletter on to other organizations and individuals who you feel might be interested.

Peace and blessings,
Dr. Harold D. Weaver
Festival-Forum Founding Director, Curator, and Host

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QLHE: Listening into Relationship

Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings in Higher
Education series presents:

Listening into Relationship:
Practices that Connect in the Secular Classroom

TO BE RESCHEDULED

More than ever, as educators we are aware that we are living in a wounded world. Yet we are also alive with the promise of the classroom as a potentially transformative space in which new forms of being can manifest. In this workshop, we will engage some listening practices that are designed to help those in the secular classroom work toward these ends. These simple practices bring alive course content while they also help students better know themselves and their peers. 

Your voluntary contribution in support of FAHE and this lecture series is greatly appreciated.

Presenter:

Alice Elliott-Sowaal (she/her; they/them)
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
San Francisco State University

Moderator:
David R. Ross (he/him)
Research Professor
Department of Economics
Bryn Mawr College

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